World’s biggest indie band Death Cab for Cutie tapped local talent for their current U.S. tour, which wraps up next week. We had a chance to talk with Death Cab’s Jason McGerr about their upcoming swing through town and working with the Magik*Magik Orchestra, a local group of classical musicians led by conductor Minna Choi that have been collaborating with acts like John Vanderslice and The Walkmen since 2008.

To win a pair of tickets to the Thursday, May 10, show, give us your best reason you deserve to go in the comments section. Winner will be chosen based on merit. Contest ends at 4 P.M. on Tuesday.

MM: You guys are playing the Fox Theater. Have you played there before? We’re very proud of it.

JM: No, I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about the Fox and the way it sounds. We really lucked out on this tour. Because we’re playing with Magik*Magik Orchestra we haven’t done as many general admission rock venues as we have big beautiful classic theaters that are designed with acoustics in mind. It’s been a real treat to be out here and hear music differently. It’s a whole new experience.

MM: How did you get introduced to the Magik*Magik Orchestra?

JM: Minna Choi did the arrangements for a few of the songs on our new record. Before that, I think in the history of the band we’ve had maybe one cellist on one song, but having more full string arrangements sounded so much more full and beautiful. Afterwards we invited Minna and four string players down to an event we were playing and had them perform, not only the two songs on our new record that they played on but also some back catalog songs that hadn’t had strings before and it was such and amazing experience that it was like, alright, make a note of that, this is what it feels like to play with strings. So that planted the seed.

MM: Tell us about the tour. How has the collaboration changed the dynamic on stage?

JM: Before the tour, Minna worked on arrangements and just kind of emailed back and forth with Chris [Walla]. They [Magik*Magik] were super professional – they had their charts and were all ready to go. Honestly the first time we played with them was like two days before the tour, and already it’s been incredible. They bring a ton to the table. They make me use my ears more. Playing in your standard four piece rock band, I know where everyone is, but sometimes I don’t really hear it, you know? So it’s a heightened sense of awareness to have these people on stage with really incredible dynamics. I feel like I just got accepted into Julliard.

Death Cab plays the Fox Theater on May 8, 9, and 10. They plan to hit up Cancun and drop by Tiny Telephone to hang out when they don’t have to work. After the tour wraps up, they head to Europe and Japan. Sounds pretty fun.

I’d like these tickets because the only time I’ve seen Deathcab was at the Bridge School Benefit, and my experience was impaired by a throng of 40-somethings slow grooving to I Will Possess Your Heart. Thats the kind of thing that sticks in your psyche, makes you reconsider your choices.

I need these tickets because try as I might I have not managed to stay hip. I live in the Mission, I drink really good coffee, and I’ve even seen Thee Oh Sees a couple of times. Still, I’m afraid I haven’t really been hip in over 20 years. Please help an old guy out!

Death Cab for Cutie was a formative band that helped ween me off of a really destructive, angry, mainstream genre into something more tonal and beautiful, which ultimately changed my disposition to be kinder and affected my perspective as a whole. To be able to share the experience of their concert with by new bride by receiving these tickets would be an effusive blessing.

Well. . . I am not your typical respondee: I’m a 56 year old man, father of two in Marin County, prosperous, could buy his own tickets, for Chrisakes. . . But in fact, my daughters call me the indiest guy they know. In the 80s, I was hanging out at the bar over Paradise Lounge sitting with Chuck Prophet and Stephanie Finch, listening to Patrick Winningham. I haven’t changed a lot. My connection to Death Cab for Cutie was discovering the Postal Service, which sustained me through many late nights of work. And Magik*Magik? I won tickets to John Vanderslice & Magik at the Great American Music Hall. They were astonishingly good together. Because the fact is, Marin County or no, it’s not whether you can afford a thing or not – it’s the insistence on authenticity and faith that says go to Santa Rosa and listen to Jeffrey Lewis in some folks’ garage; and discover the Lucksmiths when their bassist plays a solo set at Hotel Utah. And if this reply isn’t good enough to win the tickets, I don’t want them anyway.

I’d like these tickets so that 1) I can enjoy one of my favorite bands who I last saw 10 years ago in Pittsburgh, and 2) I can treat my sister, who flew out here to take care of me after I got hit by a car and had to have hip surgery (insert “hipster” joke here?).

I was a fan of Death Cab back in 1998 with ‘Something About Airplanes’,, and Ben Gibbard’s voice was there with me throughout the sometimes confusing and often lonely years of college. ‘Transatlanticism’ kept me sane. I was a devout fan when they were relatively unknown, before they were all over the OC, Gossip Girl, and became the dream of cool teenage girls everywhere. Now, I’m turning 30 and hardly their current target demographic, but darn, wouldn’t it be great to revisit those years when music defined my daily thoughts and emotions?

I am a marina mission hybrid (no hating) hipster hacker wannabe who can’t ride a fixie but loves Death Cab for Cutie. I was formerly pet named “the cutie” but am more likely to Uber than catch a death cab.

Super importantly, I am also dying to see Youth Lagoon who is opening for them.

Youth Lagoon Posters video in case you haven’t seen the song set to this awesome french animated sci-fi from the ’70s. http://youtu.be/VRE2NpdTF7o